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The Men Who Mastered Time
Augustus Steerforth seeks the assistance of Professor Hawkesworth in tracking down his boyhood friend, Inayat Khan, who has taken control of the government's secret project "Magus," a time machine, and has vanished into the fourth dimension
262 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
David Butler
2 books2 followersMy novels aim to appeal both to young readers and older readers. When I was a schoolboy I surprised my friends by the way I spent my pocket money. While they headed for the sweetshop I made for a second-hand bookshop in North London where I bought books by writers like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard. I could buy old copies of these sensational books for six old pennies, 2½ pence in new money!
I remember lying in bed and reading When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, in which another planet collides with the Earth. It frightened me so much I had to read a page, put the book down, calm down, read another page… and so on. It took me ages to get through the book.
I also remember vividly the moment when I first came across the mention of robots in the ancient Greek poem the Iliad. It says human-like androids were fabricated in about 800 BC! How did that happen?
My first book The Men who Mastered Time described two scientists who create a time machine. One of them decides to use the machine to re-engineer human history. The other must decide whether to use the machine to foil his colleague’s plan. My book was named by Books and Bookmen magazine as the best first novel of the month when it was published, which made me proud.
In my new book Lord of the Lightning a group of teenagers face the task of saving the world. Penelope Wainwright is a university student and a wheelchair user. Her circle includes Blake Harmon, a brilliant athlete of Caribbean origin, Patsy McGuire, an Irish-American girl who is a computer whizz, Monty Freedman, a boy who knows more about physics than his lecturers, and a hyper-intelligent Siamese cat named Leonardo. Leo reads books, understands ancient scripts and sends emails.
Penelope and her friends have to stop Adolf Hitler being given a weapon of mass destruction during World War 2. They have to prevent planet Earth being stolen and sold for scrap. Can they do it?
I remember lying in bed and reading When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, in which another planet collides with the Earth. It frightened me so much I had to read a page, put the book down, calm down, read another page… and so on. It took me ages to get through the book.
I also remember vividly the moment when I first came across the mention of robots in the ancient Greek poem the Iliad. It says human-like androids were fabricated in about 800 BC! How did that happen?
My first book The Men who Mastered Time described two scientists who create a time machine. One of them decides to use the machine to re-engineer human history. The other must decide whether to use the machine to foil his colleague’s plan. My book was named by Books and Bookmen magazine as the best first novel of the month when it was published, which made me proud.
In my new book Lord of the Lightning a group of teenagers face the task of saving the world. Penelope Wainwright is a university student and a wheelchair user. Her circle includes Blake Harmon, a brilliant athlete of Caribbean origin, Patsy McGuire, an Irish-American girl who is a computer whizz, Monty Freedman, a boy who knows more about physics than his lecturers, and a hyper-intelligent Siamese cat named Leonardo. Leo reads books, understands ancient scripts and sends emails.
Penelope and her friends have to stop Adolf Hitler being given a weapon of mass destruction during World War 2. They have to prevent planet Earth being stolen and sold for scrap. Can they do it?
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 23, 2019
Entertaining and thought provoking (and includes a paragraph of Plato's Republic in Greek). Definitely worthwhile reading for fans of time travel fiction.
Displaying 1 of 1 review